Huashan is one of China’s five great Taoist mountains. Her five granite peaks were formed by huge granite intrusions (volcanic activity) about 100 to 220 million years ago, with the tallest peak reaching over 2000m. We spent the day summitting all of the peaks and exploring the temples, which incredibly were built on precipitous and…

Xi’an is one of China’s oldest cities with a history spanning over 3,000 years. The city was the eastern starting point of the Silk Road, served as the Chinese capital for 13 dynasties, and is also famous for being the location of the Terracotta Army.  The city walls, which started construction in 194BC and were reconstructed in their present…

I’m not sure if we have been this excited since our wedding day. Today, we were going on a BULLET TRAIN. The 1,000km journey to Xi’An would take approximately 11/12 hours in a car. We would be there in just 4 hours. We woke up with a frisson of anticipation, navigating the early morning subway…

On our last day in Beijing we ventured to see the Temple of Heaven, a hall of prayer for good harvest. Originally built in 1420, the temple has been rebuilt 3 times after fire damage as a replica of the original structure. Downtown Beijing was less captivating, in fact, more a futuristic dystopia, where the…

By 8.30am we had entered one of the most enigmatic tourist attractions on the planet; The Forbidden City. This huge complex existed as the central axis of power of China from its beginnings in 1420 until it was turned into a tourist attraction in the early 20th century. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is the…

This morning we set a 4.30am alarm to catch the iconic raising of the flag in Tianeman Square, a tradition dating back to 1949 to mark the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Thousands flock to watch this one-minute event each morning. As we watched the flag being hoisted, excited spectators sung along to the…

Using WordPress is a proper headache, so I’ll photodump here in the hope they post (photos and words seem to disappear without rhyme or reason). Tomorrow on to the Forbidden City and Tianeman Square ❤️ 💙 💜

We lost eight hours on the flight over, many hours of sleep, and all my bank cards. We quickly learned some fancy interprative dance moves, which we executed with gusto on airport security, who kindly jumped in a bus and retrieved my purse from underneath seat 44G. Elated and excited, we jumped straight onto the…